Lia's Descendants Production

Lia wrapped up the craziest and busiest 2.5 months of her life yesterday by participating in two performances of Disney's Descendants at a beautiful high school theater in Auburn.  While juggling seminary, school, XC, and homework, Lia managed to find the energy and the time to attend her play practices three to four times a week and to learn all of her lines, songs, choreography, and blocking.  As though this wasn't enough of a challenge, Lia woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat that I am sure she got from Emmett who came down with a cold five days earlier.  We both tried not to panic and quickly decided that she would refrain from using her voice all morning long and would sip on hot, lemon water all day long.  We also said a prayer before she left and asked Heavenly Father to help her voice be able to last through two performances that day.

Luckily, prayers were answered as Lia was able to get through the first performance totally fine and only started to get hoarse at the end of the second performance.  Luckily, only Lia was able to notice this as she sounded totally normal to the rest of us while she was on stage.  It wasn't until she came out into the lobby afterwards that we were able to hear that she was starting to lose her voice a little bit.  Ron and I and my parents went to the first performance along with several friends and their families.  I brought Logan and Ella and three other friends in my car to the second performance and met Chris, Natalee, Riley, and Trenton at the theater.  In addition, several others friends and family members came to the evening performance.  Overall, Lia did a smashing job in both productions.  She knew all of her lines, songs, and choreography and definitely had the strongest and clearest voice out of all of the leads.  I was so so amazed at both of her performances and was just so proud of her.  The play was so fun and entertaining to watch and I really enjoyed watching it just as much the second time as I did the first.  I am so grateful that Lia had this wonderful opportunity to be in this musical production and for the opportunity that it gave her to continue to develop her confidence singing and acting on stage.  I know that I have said it before, but I will say it again.  I can't wait to watch Lia do her thing on stage in many plays and musical productions in the years to come!

***And as a side note, I just have to include the last part of this story.  Lia woke up today (the next morning) as sick as a dog with a fever of 102.3.  She has been so sick that she has spent the entire day in bed and barely ate anything.  She was so weak this morning that she even struggled to sit up in bed when I brought in medicine for her to drink.  I have prayed every day for the past 2.5 months that her body and mind would be able to handle the demands that she was putting on it.  I know that Heavenly Father heard and answered these prayers and kept her body strong until the very last hour of the last day of these 2.5 months so that she could give these performances her all...and then she crashed.  This truly was a tender mercy and a wonderful testimony-building experience for Lia.

Lia all dressed up as Evie and ready to go before her first show.

Lia posing with her friend, Olivia, who played Mal.

"The Evils."

Also known as the descendants of the four Disney villains:

Carlos, Mal, Evie, and Jay.

The cast taking a selfie before the show with their wonderful music director, Nick.

One of the parents is a professional photographer and she agreed to come in before the show and take some pictures of the kids on the stage.  Here is Lia with the other "Evils" trying to steal Fairy Godmother's wand from the Museum of Cultural History.

The awesome signed and framed poster of the entire cast that was part of a silent auction in the lobby.

One of my favorite pictures I managed to get of Lia and Olivia during the "Rotten to the Core" scene.

Lia talking about the atomic weight of silver during class at Auradon Prep Academy.

The kids attempting to steal the wand.

Lia with Doug at the coronation of the new king.

Lia and Olivia singing "Break this Down" during the final scene.

Lia posing in the lobby with my parents, good friend, Kristina, and her two daughters, and Ron and me after the first performance was over.

The "Evils" trying to kill Maleficent in the final scene of the second performance.

Lia walking out to take her bow at the end of her second performance.

The entire cast taking a final bow.  Well done!

Chris and his family, some friends from church, and Logan, Ella, and I posing with Lia after her second show was over.  And that's a wrap!